This well-crafted psychological thriller provides a surprising answer to the question: can a pedophile child murderer be a sympathetic character? Well, perhaps not exactly sympathetic, but Ms. Rheilan manages to provide a realistic narrative set in 1962 England in which the reader’s expectations, attitudes, and emotional reactions toward Ralph, the antihero, end up being very different from what you might expect.

The author uses the unique device of a first chapter that is exactly the same as the last chapter. In a turnabout worthy of James Joyce (although there was no wake in this story), the opening chapter sets your expectations about everything else you read. But, by the end, when you read the same words again, their meaning and relationship to the actual story is significantly different. It’s a risky move, but Ms. Rheilan makes it work.

The book’s blurb gives away that Ralph served a prison term for the murder of a child. In 1948, Ralph returns to his provincial, inbred village where nobody wants to see him. The heart of the story is Ralph’s interactions with Mary (even referred to at one point as the Virgin Mary), a pre-teen girl who has a chance encounter with him and becomes Ralph’s friend. How does a young girl in 1962 spend alone time with Ralph without her family knowing? The author spins out a totally plausible scenario about Mary’s family’s situation (her father left six months earlier, her mother tries to keep things afloat and eventually is forced to reluctantly bring in her mother, and her brothers are happy to run away and play by themselves, leaving Mary on her own). As the plot slowly unfolds, the reader’s sense of dread and emotional connection to Mary becomes agonizing.

I won’t spoil anything about the intricate story. At times It meanders more than necessary and it could have been twenty-percent shorter, but this is a mesmerizing and haunting story that will give you cold sweats and leave you with strong feelings – both positive and negative – about nearly every character.

The originality and execution here is tremendous. The richness and detail of the prose casts just the right tone and allows the reader to anticipate (rightly or wrongly) what might happen next. Despite the absence of some text-trimming that would have made it even better, this is a very worthwhile read that I fully recommend.

I was provided with a free pre-publication copy by the author. This review is my honest assessment. As of this writing, the book is available for pre-order via Amazon.